When a bill is introduced, the Speaker refers the bill to one (or more) of the standing committees. In order for the bill to ever be considered on the House floor, in other words for the bill to have any chance of passage, one of two things must happem: The bill must be reported favorably out of the committee, in other words it has a majority of the votes on that committee; or a Discharge Petition must be signed by a majority (218) of House members.
Memberships on committees are allocated so that the party with the majority of House seats gets substantially more committee seats than does the minority party. The senior committee member of the majority party is the chairman and the senior member of the other party is called the "ranking minority member."
Committees are divided into subcommittees, again apportioned in favor of the majority party. The chairman and ranking minority member of the full committee are automatically members of all subcommittees.
A committee can be a "standing committee," such as the Committee on Appropriations, or a "select committee," such as the Select Committee on Intelligence.
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2 Joint House and Senate Committees 3 Special Committees |
House Committees
Committee on Agriculture
Committee on Appropriations
Committee on Armed Services
Committee on the Budget
Committee on Education and the Workforce
Committee on Energy and Commerce
Committee on Financial Services
Committee on Government Reform
Committee on House Administration
Committee on International Relations
Committee on the Judiciary
Committee on Resources
Committee on Rules
Committee on Science
Committee on Small Business
Committee on Standards of Official Conduct
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee on Veterans Affairs
Committee on Ways and Means
Joint House and Senate Committees
Joint Economic Committee
Joint Committee on Printing
Joint Committee on Taxation
Special Committees
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
Select Committee on Homeland Security